1,252 research outputs found
Modeling Joint Improvisation between Human and Virtual Players in the Mirror Game
Joint improvisation is observed to emerge spontaneously among humans
performing joint action tasks, and has been associated with high levels of
movement synchrony and enhanced sense of social bonding. Exploring the
underlying cognitive and neural mechanisms behind the emergence of joint
improvisation is an open research challenge. This paper investigates the
emergence of jointly improvised movements between two participants in the
mirror game, a paradigmatic joint task example. A theoretical model based on
observations and analysis of experimental data is proposed to capture the main
features of their interaction. A set of experiments is carried out to test and
validate the model ability to reproduce the experimental observations. Then,
the model is used to drive a computer avatar able to improvise joint motion
with a human participant in real time. Finally, a convergence analysis of the
proposed model is carried out to confirm its ability to reproduce the emergence
of joint movement between the participants
Towards virtual communities on the Web: Actors and audience
We report about ongoing research in a virtual
reality environment where visitors can interact with
agents that help them to obtain information, to perform
certain transactions and to collaborate with them in order
to get some tasks done. Our environment models a
theatre in our hometown. We discuss attempts to let this
environment evolve into a theatre community where we
do not only have goal-directed visitors, but also visitors
that that are not sure whether they want to buy or just
want information or visitors who just want to look
around. It is shown that we need a multi-user and multiagent
environment to realize our goals. Since our environment
models a theatre it is also interesting to investigate
the roles of performers and audience in this environment.
For that reason we discuss capabilities and personalities of agents. Some notes on the historical development of networked communities are included
Design of a Virtual Player for Joint Improvisation with Humans in the Mirror Game
Joint improvisation is often observed among humans performing joint action tasks. Exploring the underlying cognitive and neural mechanisms behind the emergence of joint improvisation is an open research challenge. This paper investigates jointly improvised movements between two participants in the mirror game, a paradigmatic joint task example. First, experiments involving movement coordination of different dyads of human players are performed in order to build a human benchmark. No designation of leader and follower is given beforehand. We find that joint improvisation is characterized by the lack of a leader and high levels of movement synchronization. Then, a theoretical model is proposed to capture some features of their interaction, and a set of experiments is carried out to test and validate the model ability to reproduce the experimental observations. Furthermore, the model is used to drive a computer avatar able to successfully improvise joint motion with a human participant in real time. Finally, a convergence analysis of the proposed model is carried out to confirm its ability to reproduce joint movements between the participants.This work was supported by European
Project AlterEgo FP7 ICT 2.9 - Cognitive 321
Sciences and Robotics, Grant Number 600610 (MdB,
http://www.euromov.eu/alterego/project)
Towards Communicating Agents and Avatars in Virtual Worlds
We report about ongoing research in a virtual reality environment where visitors can interact with agents that help them to obtain information, to perform certain transactions and to collaborate with them in order to get some tasks done. In addition, in a multi-user version of the system visitors can chat with each other. Our environment is a laboratory for research and for experiments with users interacting with agents in multimodal ways, referring to visualized information and making use of knowledge possessed by domain agents, but also by agents that represent other visitors of this environment. We discuss standards that are under development for designing such environments. Our environment models a local theatre in our hometown. We discuss our attempts to let this environment evolve into a theatre community where we do not only have goal-directed visitors buying tickets, but also visitors that that are not yet sure whether they want to buy or just want information or visitors who just want to look around, talk with others, etc. It is shown that we need a multi-user and multi-agent environment to realize our goals and that we need to have a unifying framework in order to be able to introduce and maintain different agents and user avatars with different abilities, including intellectual, interaction and animation abilities
Dynamic similarity promotes interpersonal coordination in joint-action
Human movement has been studied for decades and dynamic laws of motion that
are common to all humans have been derived. Yet, every individual moves
differently from everyone else (faster/slower, harder/smoother etc). We propose
here an index of such variability, namely an individual motor signature (IMS)
able to capture the subtle differences in the way each of us moves. We show
that the IMS of a person is time-invariant and that it significantly differs
from those of other individuals. This allows us to quantify the dynamic
similarity, a measure of rapport between dynamics of different individuals'
movements, and demonstrate that it facilitates coordination during interaction.
We use our measure to confirm a key prediction of the theory of similarity that
coordination between two individuals performing a joint-action task is higher
if their motions share similar dynamic features. Furthermore, we use a virtual
avatar driven by an interactive cognitive architecture based on feedback
control theory to explore the effects of different kinematic features of the
avatar motion on the coordination with human players
Games and Brain-Computer Interfaces: The State of the Art
BCI gaming is a very young field; most games are proof-of-concepts. Work that compares BCIs in a game environments with traditional BCIs indicates no negative effects, or even a positive effect of the rich visual environments on the performance. The low transfer-rate of current games poses a problem for control of a game. This is often solved by changing the goal of the game. Multi-modal input with BCI forms an promising solution, as does assigning more meaningful functionality to BCI control
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